Lent.

Today, being Thursday, was chapel talk. Dr. Kubiak gave his chapel talk about Evelyn Waugh, an author and journalist that converted to Catholicism in 1930. Mr. Waugh apparently abhorred the reformations of the Church in the 1960′s, but that’s besides the point.

The reason that I mention this is because Lent started yesterday, Ash Wednesday. Being a non-practicing Catholic (I would say ex-Catholic but, since 2009, no one is formally allowed to defect from the Catholic Church), I have memories of Lenten celebrations at my Catholic school. Most prominently, I remember the ash that is put on the foreheads of the congregation on Ash Wednesday. Even though I now call myself an atheist, this has always stuck with me. I remember the priest of our church saying something along the lines of “you are all made of dust, and to dust you shall return”. This is a very similar view as to what I currently have. The idea that we are all made of (star)dust and that, eventually, we will all return to it. This is an idea that I can get behind.